The Command That Changed Everything — God's Call to Abraham and the Birth of a Nation

"Lech Lecha" — A Command, Not a Suggestion

The name "Lech Lecha" means "Go Forward", but it could also mean "Go away from here!" In all the translations of "lech lecha", the impression of this text is that this request is a strong command — a command that can't be misunderstood. If I would translate this phrase, "Lech Lecha," I would translate it as, "You get yourself together and move out to yourself."

These are the words that start the History of Salvation. In my opinion there cannot be salvation of any form without movement. Movement is one of the most basic challenges of mankind. We don't like change so much. We like calm, peaceful, stable; a place to rest.

God said to Abram, nay God commanded Abraham,

But also, people don't move and change destinies without some good perspective, hope, and reward, for the future.

What is most impressive is that there are no details of how long it took Abraham to pack his belongings, or how he and his family said "goodbye" to the relatives. Did he sell his property in Haran? There are no details, no narrative, just "so Abram departed…"

A Paradigm Shift at Genesis 12

Something happens in chapter 12 of Genesis that takes the history of mankind, and definitely the history of salvation, to a whole new level. Until Genesis 12, the biblical narrative is universal. There are some individuals mentioned: Noah and his family, Enoch, Cain and Abel, and Adam and Eve, but these characters, as important as they are, were generic human beings. There are no specific nations or tribes mentioned between Genesis chapter 1–12.

Before the Tower of Babel there were no nations. Nations were formed when God confused their languages and gave each nation its territorial inheritance and culture. What makes a nation? What divides between the Gentiles (nations)?

The most important characteristic that divides people is language. The second is homeland: a territory, boundaries. The third most important characteristic that divides people is their culture: their national character, holidays, and constitution that governs them.

There was no idolatry before the Tower of Babel, and there were no nations before the Tower of Babel. Idolatry is connected with the establishment of nations. I realize that this sounds strange to some people, but together with the language and territory, God gave these people, who didn't want God to lead them, the opportunity to choose which idols they are going to worship.

God Sends Abraham to a Bad Neighborhood

Back to Abraham! We know very little about Abraham before God chose him and commanded him to leave his homeland. God took Abraham and his family away from all the anchors that give stability and support to a person. At first God didn't even tell him the name of the place that He is sending him.

The land of Canaan was the worst place in the civilized world during the period between 1800–1400 B.C. The land of Canaan at that time (around 1800 BCE) was a total mess. It had tribes and nations that migrated to Canaan and settled there from all three continents: Africa, Asia, and Europe. This place was the only land bridge between three continents — Asia, Africa, and Europe. The migrants had to pass through the narrow bottleneck between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River in order to reach Egypt.

Note the number of nations that stopped in the land of Canaan during the time of Abraham: Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, Jebusites, Hittites, Perizzites, and Philistines. Philistines came from Greece, Crete. Hittites came from Central Anatolia (Turkey of today). Amorites came from West Asia Minor and Northern Syria. The Girgashites are more mysterious, and we know that they stayed in the land of Canaan, Israel, until the Babylonian Exile. Some people think that they came from central Asia. Jebusites came from central Europe, probably Slavic, from the area of the Balkan. Perizzites are supposed to have come to the land of Canaan from the area north of Persia, maybe Georgia or Uzbekistan. Besides these nations on the West side of the Jordan River, we have on the East side the Ammonites, Moabites, Edom, and Amalekites who were a nomadic nation, and didn't have a particular territory.

I often wonder why God did not send Abraham West rather than Southeast. Had Abraham gone West, maybe Israel would be living in Switzerland now — it is a much better neighborhood.

Abraham — God's Insurance Policy for Humanity

This call that Abraham received from the Almighty God changed history, and not only the family of Abraham. God chose Abraham and his seed, i.e. Israel, as an insurance policy that one day all of God's creation of humanity will turn around and restore their relationship with their maker — with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

After the dividing of humanity into nations, each with its own language, and its own territory and even with their own idols, God had to take out an insurance policy to make sure that one day humanity will again abandon idolatry and rebellion against Him as King of the Universe, and return to recognize God as the only Father of all living. This insurance policy was Abraham and his seed, the seed that came from Isaac and Jacob.

We all — Jews, Christians, Muslims, and the rest of the human race — depend on that one old man and his old wife for our relationship to the Almighty God who created the Heavens and the Earth. We all have knowledge and relationship with the Creator God who made the Heavens and the Earth because of Abraham, and Sarah his wife, and the souls that they made in Haran and joined Abraham on this wild and dangerous journey in obedience to God Himself.